A-272 Neuropsychological Performance in Cognitively Normal Native and Non-Native English Speakers: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Abstract Objective: Compare neuropsychological test performance of native English speakers (NES) and English as a second language speakers (ESLS), and investigate the effect of native language writing systems. Method: Dataset was obtained from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC). Participants were required to have normal cognition, which was determined by the evaluating clinicians. All neuropsychological tests were administered in English. Participants were age and education-matched. Twenty-five ESLS (Mage= 69.80; MEdu= 15.44) and 25 NES (Mage= 69.84; MEdu= 15.68) met inclusion criteria. Results: Independent samples t-test revealed statistically significant group differences for: Digit Span Forward (DSF) length, Digit Span Backward (DSB), DSB length, Animal Fluency, Trail Making Test-Part A (TMT-A), Trail Making Test-Part B (TMT-B), WAIS-R Digit Symbol (WAIS-R), and Boston Naming Test (BNT). Results showed medium effect sizes that ranged from .62–.78; although, group means were in the average range. The 50 participants were further divided into three groups: native-English speakers only (NES-O), English as a second language speakers with Latin-based language origin (ESLS-LO), and English as a second language speakers with symbolic language origin (ESLS-SO). Post-hoc Hochberg’s GT2 test showed ESLS-LO and NES-O significantly differed on DSB, TMT-B, and WAIS-R. Additionally, ESLS-SO and NES-O significantly differed on the BNT. For these measures, the standardized mean difference was large (d= .80-1.10). Conclusions: These preliminary findings indicate that NES significantly differ in most areas of cognition than ESLS, which suggests that although considered “cognitively normal,” there is greater need for neuropsychological measures that utilize normative samples that better represent all cultures, including ones with different linguistic backgrounds.